Top 5 Best Football Shirts Of 08/09 Premier League Season

It’s a pretty sad reflection on the state of football shirt design when it’s much easier to pick the five worst ones than is to find the best kits for the 2008/2009 Premier League season.

Many of the new shirt designs are boring and predictable, borrowing the designs from already created templates. Adidas and Umbro are particularly guilty. But rather than dwell on the negative, let’s take a look at the five best ones (in reverse order).

5. Manchester City home.

Le Coq Sportif’s design for the Manchester City home shirt is quite unique. The way the V-neck collar is cut is futuristic. The arc of color that runs across the upper chest is also original. So too is the placement of the kit manufacturer’s logo on the shoulder, which allows the Man City club crest to be displayed front and center above the sponsor’s name. With Le Coq Sportif, fans either love or hate their designs. To me, they’re original, artistic and a breath of fresh air.

4. Liverpool home.

While Liverpool’s new away and third shirts are ranked among the worst of 2008/2009, Adidas got the home shirt design perfect. The shirt is the perfect balance between retro (the three stripes on the shoulders) and traditional (the red checkered design on the inside collar, which is inspired by the colors of the flags of the Kop). This is definitely one of the best Liverpool home shirt designs in years.

3. Hull City home.

Umbro’s design for the new Hull home shirt is spot on. The kit manufacturer and club decided to revert back to Hull’s traditional yellow and black stripes, which has been favorably received by Hull supporters and is such a refreshingly different design that Premier League followers are not used to seeing.

2. Chelsea away.

There’s something about the simplicity of black football shirts that make them look so attractive. But what separates Chelsea’s design from Spurs’s third shirt is the classic Adidas styling that, again, is so simple but sublime. Sometimes less is more, and this is a perfect example of that.

1. Middlesbrough away.

Middlesbrough and Errea surprised many neutral football fans this summer by unveiling two quality designs, one, of their new home shirt which sees the return of the white band across the chest and, two, featuring their new away shirt of black and blue stripes. Before you suggest that Boro are purely cashing in on Inter Milan’s design, the new Boro away shirt harkens back to the 1970′s when Middlesbrough wore a similar design. In fact, from 1892 to 1895, Middlesbrough’s home shirt was blue and it wasn’t until 1899 that the team chose red.

The difference between this blue and black striped design and Sunderland’s similar one comes down to class. Sunderland’s design features thicker stripes so it doesn’t accentuate the blue and black stripes as well as Boro’s does.

About Christopher Harris

Founder and publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris is the managing editor of the site. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who has lived in Florida since 1984, has supported Swansea City since 1979. He's also an expert on soccer in South Florida, and got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.
Harris launched EPL Talk in 2005, which was rebranded as World Soccer Talk in 2013.
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18 Responses to Top 5 Best Football Shirts Of 08/09 Premier League Season

i can’t argue with those choices, except for the middlesbrough. although, i would have to find room for arsenal’s new home strip. the claret red stipes on the outside of the white on the sleeves is looking oh so good.

So you have no taste at all then no? That middlesbro jersey looks like one of those shiny bargain bucket shirts pub teams play in! And Im a boro fan! I hate those errea jerseys, If fulham have nike jerseys we should too, somethin like arsenals new strip, thats top class and our colours too!

LIVERPOOL’S NEW HOME KIT IS BRILLIANT! I THINK TORRES GERRARD KEAN AND KUYT WILL ALL DO GOOD IN IT, I HOPE THE’LL HELP THE REDS WIN THE TITLE. I LIKE THE BIT INSIDE WEAR IT SAYS THIS IS ANFEILD ON THE NECK BIT.
I LIKE IT HOW THEY TAKEN OF THE COLLER AND PUT THE WHITE IN INSTED.
SWET HOLES ON FRONT OF THE SHIRT I LIKE THEM.I’M TRYING TO GET HOLD OF THE EUROPEIAN KIT BUT ITS NOT OUT YET, I’VE GOT THE WHOLE HOME AND AWAY LIVERPOOL KIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i like normal kits, (what do i mean by normal)
well i don’t like the kits that are sopposed to glow
in the dark, like chelsea’s away kit last season
and wigan’s away kit this season and everton’s
3rd kit this season,the kits that are sopposed
to glow in the dark lmao!!!!!!!